


Some Advice, Man to Man.

by ActiveAgression



Category: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
Genre: Enoch's POV, Fluff, Internalised time relevant homophobia, M/M, Not entirely PC words; gypsy, Olive knowing what's up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 05:01:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8519515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActiveAgression/pseuds/ActiveAgression
Summary: Enoch's bad at feelings but interested enough to pursue these ones.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I know, I'm awful. I'll write the stories no one asks for and get stuck on the ones they do. Whatever. It's cute. It's cute damnit!
> 
> There's a few fics out there already similar to this one, I know but the writing is entirely mine even if the concept remains similar. Then again it's hard not to be when the obvious fic choice is the one where jake arrives and him and Enoch are like, 'Oh, hot shit.' 
> 
> Hope you enjoy. Kudos or comment if you want. I sure appreciate it. Brings a smile to my black cold soul.

When Miss Peregrine tells them to expect Abe’s grandson, Enoch scoffs. He never liked Abe, or at least he didn’t when the man left and never came back. He absolutely shattered Emma’s heart. Olive reminds him that just because they’re related, it doesn’t mean the grandson will do the same. Enoch reminds her that if peculiarities can run in the family, so can unfortunate bouts of selfishness. She glares and stomps off, like she always does when he’s being difficult. Enoch’s too proud to go after her and too convinced he’s right to be apologetic. Whatever. 

When that boy from the future is brought through the door, Enoch barely acknowledges him. But then Olive brings over a kettle of tea and Enoch looks up long enough to know this time he’ll be the one with a shattered heart. 

The boy’s beautiful and Enoch says something nasty as a defense against his smile as he slams that particular emotional door and runs away. But in a dignified way. He retreats, tactically. Olive calls after him and catches up with him on the stairs. 

“You haven’t even spoken to him,” she complains. 

“I don’t have to,” Enoch responds because he doesn’t have to to know doing so will leave him utterly infatuated. He curses his secondary peculiarity. Why did he have to be burdened with homosexuality? Surely the boy could never like a freak like him. He scowls; not that he wants him too. 

“That’s petty,” Olive chides. 

“It’s protection,” he says and her eyes soften like she  _ knows  _ and pities him for it. He pushes past her, rougher than he means to and rushes up the stairs. He wants to be alone. 

 

He’s tinkering with his puppets when Olive knocks because of course she couldn’t just leave him alone. He scowls at the door, more so when Jake comes trailing in behind Olive. He looks sort of sheepish like he’s done something wrong - which he hasn’t. It’s Enoch that’s all wrong in the head. 

He flashes his blue eyes upwards, fear evident but also curiosity. “What is this?” he asks with such a pretty voice. Enoch hates it on principle.

“My peculiarity,” he says. 

Jake nods like he understands then furrows his brow like he has no idea what he’s meant to be understanding. 

“Some advice for you though,” Enoch begins amicably, “man to man.” Jake’s expression turns cautious and he takes a step back from Enoch’s desk. 

“Man to man,” he repeats faintly like that’s the part which is meant to mean something. His eyes fall to the floor and he shuffles like a man with something to hide. Enoch glares at the interruption and continues. 

“If you’re thinking of staying just because you like Emma, don’t bother.” 

Annoyingly, Jake doesn’t seem worried. He seems relieved if anything and Enoch suddenly and desperately wants a peculiarity that could tell him what that’s meant to convey.  “Don’t worry. I’m not,” Jake says, surprisingly honest sounding. But then again, Abe had seemed that way too once. He’d killed Emma. 

“She swore off romance decades ago,” Enoch continues because he’s not about to be put off by words which mean very little. 

“It’s fine, really,” Jake tries to interject. Enoch glares at him until he looks back at the floor and is silent. 

“When she got her heart broken,” Enoch resumes and Jake looks up again, confused. 

“What?” 

“What are you finding confusing?” Enoch sighs. 

“Who got their heart broken?”

“Emma!” 

“What?”

Enoch glares, very aware Olive’s probably dying laughing behind him. “Emma. She swore off romance decades ago, when she got her heart broken!” 

“Oh. Okay, sorry.” 

“Thank you. It’s just she’ll never change her mind.” 

“Well,” Jake begins, “I don’t think that’s healthy… but I don’t like her. Not like that.” 

“Good,” Enoch says before he can think about it and does everything in his power to reign his face in from revealing what a mistake that had been to say. He’s jealous, he realises and rummages in his drawer for a heart as a distraction. 

It’s only when his two puppets are fighting that he looks up from them to find Jake completely enthralled in watching their little clay battle. His eyes are shining and Enoch cannot find the willpower to not think of kissing him. 

 

That night they watch Horace’s dreams. The rest of them are anyway, Enoch’s too busy watching Jake. He tries to be subtle about it but the boy did choose to sit next to him. His legs are spread in that way they must sit in the future because no one Enoch knows in his time does it quite the same. His knee is almost touching Enoch’s and it’s taking quite a bit of effort to keep his own leg from slouching just a little and touching Jake’s.

The children mumble amongst themselves, suddenly and Jake straightens beside him. Enoch looks to the projection to see him and Jake there, in his bedroom. Jake’s saying something and Enoch is playing with his cuff buttons in the way he  _ knows  _ he does when he’s nervous. Olive murmurs to herself behind him and leans forward to whisper, “you fancy him,” in his ear like he doesn’t already know. 

He turns to glare at her but the children are becoming even more noisy, gasping and giggling. On the projector Jake’s holding something just in the dark of the picture. It’s hard to make out what it is but Enoch knows. There’s no more cuff fumbling going on because Jake is  _ holding his hand. _

“Stop it,” he commands and, in shock, Horace does.  “Probably going to get violent,” Enoch excuses as the children turn to stare at him. His knee’s touching Jake’s he knows and gets up so no one else notices.  Now he’s standing he feels so unsure of himself. He feels alone and insecure and like she can read his mind, Miss Peregrine comes to his rescue. 

“It’s almost loop time anyway,” she interrupts, hustling everyone out of the room. Jake sits still, watching him. Enoch clears his throat and refuses to look into those too blue eyes. 

“Best be going,” he suggests. 

“Yes,” Jake responds quietly, “best.” 

They walk to the front door together, shoulders almost brushing but not quite and Enoch wants to scream. When had Jake decided he could be Enoch’s friend? Because he can’t. 

He looks over to tell Jake just that but what really leaves his mouth is, “you’ll enjoy the loop.” 

Jake looks at him for a moment. “Do you?” 

“I’ve seen it too much.” 

“Oh.” 

Enoch pulls on his gas mask with all the rest of them. It’s normal for them but Jake stares at the mask like he has no desire to see one of them, let alone put one on. He struggles with it too and Enoch glares at the grass, absolutely refusing to help. 

Olive snacks him on the arm as she walks past him to help Jake into it and as he laughs, Enoch feels jealousy burble up inside him. He wants to make Jake laugh. He wants to touch him. 

Jake would never let him though. No sane person would want to touch a monster like himself. If Jake knew he would be running for the hills. 

Olive comes back to stand beside him. “You’re being ridiculous,” she mutters, muffled even more through the gas mask. As such, he pretends not to hear. She stomps hard on his toes then and he forces himself to not react. 

“He comes from the future,” she says, “maybe it’s different there. You should ask.” 

“Shut up,” he hisses but it’s too late. Horace has turned to them, mask ghastly in the flashing light of the sun rewinding. 

“Maybe it’s worse,” he remarks, accent mangled by the air filter. The world stops spinning once more and Olive stomps her foot against the grass. 

“Oh what do you know,” she whispers harshly, pulling her mask off in amidst red tangles of hair. 

Horace pulls his off too and looks thoroughly unimpressed. “I know how bad it is now,” he says and stalks off. The rest of the children follow suit, Jake following Emma like a lamb. 

Olive seems taken aback. “Maybe I should apologise,” she says. 

“He’s rather private,” Miss Peregrine responds from behind them, causing them both to jump, “I doubt you could have known really. He’s not at all like Enoch. He’s still young enough to hide his feelings rather well.” 

Olive’s nodding but Enoch can’t bring himself to do much more besides stare at the ground. 

“You knew,” he accuses. 

“I thought it would be better for you to tell me in your own time, but now it seems like you’re okay with everyone knowing. You really should try to stare less.” 

Enoch blinks hard at the floor and walks away. He’s had enough confusion today. He doesn’t require any more. Olive calls after him but is quickly shushed by Miss Peregrine. 

“He needs his time,” she says and Enoch couldn’t agree more. But first there’s something he needs to do. 

 

Jake looks confused when Enoch strides into Abe’s room. He puts away a strange metallic device and stands. 

“Wha-” 

“What’s it like in the future,” Enoch interrupts, a touch desperately. 

“It’s uh - nice?” Jake asks.  Enoch steps further into the room and Jake stumbles back until he’s back to sitting on his bed. 

“It’s not nice?” Jake asks again and Enoch sighs. 

“More specific.” 

“Then you need to specify,” Jake complains. He’s got a furrow in between his brows and Enoch wonders how averse he would be if Enoch were to sit on that bed beside him and kiss him until they can’t breathe. He doesn’t though, because Horace’s dream wasn’t set in this room and Jake wasn’t sitting. That being said, he’s not sure he’d have anymore nerve to kiss Jake in his own room than he does here. 

Enoch knows saying ‘homosexuality’ is too much of a give away for him to manage and so he says, “discrimination.” 

Jake swallows. “Every race is treated the same. Women have all the rights men have, I, uh, guess.” 

Enoch closes his eyes and looks to the floor. “So it doesn’t exist?” he asks. 

Jake laughs a short bark of a laugh. “No. It definitely exists. I’ve been discriminated against.” 

“For what?” 

Jake shakes his head, “Nothing. Nevermind.” 

“For what?” 

"Really, nothing." 

"Jake," Enoch growls, "for what?"

“For being gay,” Jake blurts and Enoch squints at him. Gay isn’t a word he would associate with discrimination. 

“Happy?” he asks because maybe it has a different meaning in the future. He’s so sick of having to compare now to the future. He knows it’s because he won’t ever experience it and he’s sick of knowing that too. 

“No… umm. Homosexual,” Jake says cringing, like he expects Enoch to do something rash and punch him. Enoch kind of does want to punch him because that admission makes it so much harder to feel nothing. 

“Oh,” Enoch mutters, “so it’s still seen as bad then?” 

“Only by a minority of people. Most people are pretty supportive.”

Enoch feels a little lightheaded and sits down heavily on the bed, a good few rulers away from Jake. 

“So you have kissed other men?” he asks, curious and preemptively jealous. 

Jake blushes hard, “no,” he squeaks. “I’m not very popular.” 

“No one likes you,” Enoch laughs, “not really a surprise.” 

“It’s not because i’m gay,” Jake tries to defend though it was part of the reason. 

“No. It wouldn’t be. It’s that awful personality,” Enoch jokes. 

“Why did you want to know anyway,” Jake asks, trying to draw the conversation away from himself. 

“I - uh…” ‘Just do it,’ he thinks, taking a deep breath, “I’m also… gay.” 

Jake’s eyebrows seem surprised while the rest of his face pinches like he’s just eaten something tasteless and isn’t quite sure if he’s meant to like it or not. “Cool,” he says, nodding. Enoch doesn’t feel cold at all really, but nods back and goes out in the hallway to get a blanket from the cupboard. The reaction he’d got wasn’t quite the one he’d been going for. Then again, he’s not sure what he was going for either. A declaration of attraction, written in the form of a contract would’ve been nice though.

He sighs and carries the heavy blanket back to Abe’s door. Jake’s still sitting on the bed, muttering to himself. It’s things like, ‘cool? I’m so stupid. What the hell was I thinking?’ 

“Are you not cold?” Enoch asks, trying to piece together what the boy’s muttering about. Jake looks up, surprise flashing over his face before his eyes land on the blanket and once more he looks confused. 

“You got us a blanket?” he asks. 

“Us?” Enoch echoes, faintly. He’s quite sure he looks scared, because he feels that way. What exactly had Jake expected from him? What does he expect from him? 

Jake blushes, “I meant me. You got me a blanket.” 

Enoch ignores him, “you wanted to share a blanket?” 

“No…” 

“Are you even cold?” 

“No?” 

Enoch glares, “then why did I even get the blanket?” 

“I don’t know! Why did you?” Jake yells, standing and moving closer. He’s closer than Enoch would like and he reflexively folds the blanket over his forearm and fiddles with his shirt cuff. 

“You said it was cool,” Enoch defends, abruptly aware that maybe he’d been mistaken about Horace’s vision and maybe it wasn’t his own room he’d been seeing. It could’ve been Jake’s. 

Jake steps even closer and Enoch just knows this is the vision they’d seen. So why isn’t Jake holding his hand? He huffs and Jake laughs. 

“It’s a future thing. Cool is like another word for good.” 

Enoch feels stupid and shoves the blanket at the other boy, hoping it’ll hurt. Jake doesn’t quite catch it, managing to grip one corner as the rest ends up on the floor. Enoch goes to turn away because it completely escapes him that this is the vision they’d seen and Jake reaches out with his free hand to grab Enoch’s. 

They’re holding hands. He stares at where they’re touching and back up at Jake in time to see the other boy staring at his mouth. He looks away quickly but Enoch’s already seen and already decided what he wants to do.

“You still want to share the blanket?” he asks. Jake’s eyes go moon wide and he nods, just a little. He probably doesn’t mean to but it doesn’t matter to Enoch. He picks up the blanket from the floor and pulls Jake along behind him out the door. His hand is warm where it touches Jakes and it feels so nice he just grasps tighter. 

“Where are we going?” Jake asks, stumbling behind him. Enoch just grins at him and takes him out the front doors of Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar children. It’s still early morning, early enough the stars have yet to go away and the sun has yet to climb past the roundness of the Earth. 

Enoch sets down the blanket as a blue square on green grass and wordlessly pulls Jake down to lie beside him. 

“Stars,” Jake surmises, peering up at the sky. 

Enoch rolls his eyes, “yes, stars. The only appropriate way to share a blanket.” 

Jake sniffs audibly, “is appropriate the only way we’ll ever share a blanket.” 

Enoch’s heart thuds against his chest, “I sure hope not.” 

“You see those three stars?” Jake asks, out of the blue, “those bright ones in a kind of row?”

Enoch nods. 

“Well those three stars make up Orion’s Belt.” 

Enoch nods again, not quite sure he’s homosexual enough for constellations. “Are you going to start telling me about star signs?” he asks, “are you some kind of gypsy?” 

“Shut up,” Jake tells him, playfully. “Now, if you look really _ really  _ close, and I mean really close, just beneath Orion’s Belt, you can almost, _almost_ make out his dick.” 

Enoch turns, almost dumbstruck, to stare at Jake. “Is that your idea of romance?” he asks. 

“No,” Jake allows, “but this is.” With that he pushes himself up on his elbows and twists his head to meet Enoch’s lips with his own. It’s a light kiss - both their firsts - and Enoch finds himself shivering through no fault of the temperature. Jake draws away, smiling like some kind of loon. 

“How’s that for romance?” he grins. 

“I think I prefer Orion’s unmentionables,” Enoch jokes, unable to keep a matching silly grin from his face. 

“No you don’t.”

“No, I don’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes I have used to Orion line. Yes, it did work. ;) try it. Double dare you.


End file.
